200,024 research outputs found
Letter from J. C. Estes to B. R. Colson
No full textLetter from J. C. Estes to B. R. Colson. The one-page handwritten note is dated 12 January 1909. There is a transcript of the correspondence in the item PDF
Automatic vigilance for negative words is categorical and general
No full textWith other factors controlled, negative words elicit slower lexical decisions and naming than positive words (Estes & Adelman, 2008; see record 2008-09984-001). Moreover, this marked difference in responding to negative words and to positive words (i.e., between-category discontinuity) was accompanied by relatively uniform responding among negative words (i.e., within-category equivalence), thus suggesting a categorical model of automatic vigilance. Larsen, Mercer, Balota, and Strube (this issue; see record 2008-09984-002) corroborated our observation that valence predicts lexical decision and word naming latencies. However, on the basis of an interaction between linear arousal and linear valence, they claim that automatic vigilance does not occur among arousing stimuli and they purport to reject the categorical model. Here we show that (a) this interaction is logically irrelevant to whether automatic vigilance is categorical; (b) the linear interaction is statistically consistent with the categorical model; (c) the interaction is not observed within the categorical model; and (d) despite having 5 fewer parameters, the categorical model predicts word recognition times as well as the interaction model. Thus, automatic vigilance is categorical and generalizes across levels of arousa
Individual differences in the perception of similarity and difference.
No full textThematically related concepts like coffee and milk are judged to be more similar than thematically unrelated concepts like coffee and lemonade. We investigated whether thematic relations exert a small effect that occurs consistently across participants (i.e., a generalized model), or a large effect that occurs inconsistently across participants (i.e., an individualized model). We also examined whether difference judgments mirrored similarity or whether these judgments were, in fact, non-inverse. Five studies demonstrated the necessity of an individualized model for both perceived similarity and difference, and additionally provided evidence that thematic relations affect similarity more than difference. Results suggest that models of similarity and difference must be attuned to large and consistent individual variability in the weighting of thematic relations
Integrative and semantic relations equally alleviate age-related associative memory deficits
No full textTwo experiments compared effects of integrative and semantic relations between pairs of words on lexical and memory processes in old age. Integrative relations occur when two dissimilar and unassociated words are linked together to form a coherent phrase (e.g., horse-doctor). In Experiment 1, older adults completed a lexical-decision task where prime and target words were related either integratively or semantically. The two types of relation both facilitated responses compared to a baseline condition, demonstrating that priming can occur in older adults with minimal preexisting associations between primes and targets. In Experiment 2, young and older adults completed a cued recall task with integrative, semantic, and unrelated word pairs. Both integrative and semantic pairs showed significantly smaller age differences in associative memory compared to unrelated pairs. Integrative relations facilitated older adults' memory to a similar extent as semantic relations despite having few preexisting associations in memory. Integratability of stimuli is therefore a new factor that reduces associative deficits in older adults, most likely by supporting encoding and retrieval mechanisms
Thematic relations affect similarity via commonalities
No full textThematic relations are an important source of perceived similarity. For instance, the rowing theme of boats and oars increases their perceived similarity. The mechanism of this effect, however, has not been specified previously. We investigated whether thematic relations affect similarity by increasing commonalities or by decreasing differences. In Experiment 1, thematic relations affected similarity more than difference, thereby producing a non-inversion of similarity and difference. Experiment 2 revealed substantial individual variability in the preference for thematic relations and, consequently in the non-inversion of ratings. In sum, the experiments demonstrated a non-inversion of similarity and difference that was caused by thematic relations and exhibited primarily by a subgroup of participants. These results indicate that thematic relations affect perceived similarity by increasing the contribution of commonalities rather than by decreasing the contribution of differences
Touch and go: merely grasping a product facilitates brand perception and choice
No full textConsumers often touch products, and such haptic exploration can improve consumers’ evaluations of the product. We tested whether cross-modal priming might contribute to this effect. Under the guise of a weight judgment task, which served as a haptic prime, we had blindfolded participants grasp familiar products (e.g., a Coca Cola bottle). We then had participants visually identify the brand name as quickly as possible (Experiments 1 and 2), list the first beverage brands that come to mind (Experiment 3), or choose between beverage brands as reward for participation (Experiment 4). Haptic exposure facilitated visual recognition of the given brand, and increased participants’ consideration and choice of that brand. Moreover, this haptic priming was brand-specific and occurred even among participants who did not consciously identify the prime brand. These results demonstrate that haptic brand identities can facilitate recognition, consideration, and brand choice, regardless of consumers’ conscious awareness of this haptic priming
Multisensory interaction in product choice: grasping a product affects choice of other seen products
No full textConsumers often touch products before reaching purchase decisions, and indeed touch improves evaluations of the given product. The present research investigates how touching a given product influences perception and choice of other seen products. We show that grasping a source product increases the visual fluency of a haptically similar product, thereby increasing the likelihood of choosing that product, but not the willingness to pay for it (Study 1). We also show that visually crowded rather than sparse product displays increase the effect of touch on choosing other haptically similar products, and that individuals' instrumental need for touch further modulates this effect (Study 2). Our results suggest that by manipulating or mimicking the haptic features (e.g., shape and size) of objects that consumers grasp while shopping, marketers can develop packaging that facilitates consumers' visual processing of their products, thereby increasing choice of those products
Shopping to and fro: ideomotor compatibility of arm posture and product choice.
No full textBody posture influences many behaviors, including consumption. Perhaps the most widely studied and easily manipulated body posture is arm extension or flexion. Arm extension occurs when the hand is extended away from the body (elbow ≈ 180°), whereas arm flexion occurs when the hand is retracted toward the body (elbow ≈ 90°). To illustrate, arm extension tends to facilitate responding to negative stimuli, whereas arm flexion facilitates responding to positive stimuli (for review see Eder & Hommel, 2013). Analogously, based on the association between arm flexion and positive evaluation, participants consume more when an arm is flexed than when it is extended (Förster, 2003). However, we will argue that posture effects on consumption are modulated by their compatibility with cognitions (Barsalou, Niedenthal, Barbey, & Ruppert, 2003). In addition to providing a critical theoretical test of three models described below, this research also contributes practically by clarifying how shopping
environments can be managed to optimize consumers‟ experiences
Comparison and contrast in perceptual categorization
No full textPeople categorized pairs of perceptual stimuli that varied in both category membership and pairwise similarity. Experiments 1 and 2 showed categorization of 1 color of a pair to be reliably contrasted from that of the other. This similarity-based contrast effect occurred only when the context stimulus was relevant for the categorization of the target (Experiment 3). The effect was not simply owing to perceptual color contrast (Experiment 4), and it extended to pictures from common semantic categories (Experiment 5). Results were consistent with a sign-and-magnitude version of N. Stewart and G. D. A. Brown's (2005) similarity-dissimilarity generalized context model, in which categorization is affected by both similarity to and difference from target categories. The data are also modeled with criterion setting theory (M. Treisman & T. C. Williams, 1984), in which the decision criterion is systematically shifted toward the mean of the current stimuli
Automatic vigilance for negative words in lexical decision and naming : comment on Larsen, Mercer, and Balota (2006)
No full textAn automatic vigilance hypothesis states that humans preferentially attend to negative stimuli, and this attention to negative valence disrupts the processing of other stimulus properties. Thus, negative words typically elicit slower color naming, word naming, and lexical decisions than neutral or positive words. Larsen, Mercer, and Balota (see record 2006-04603-006) analyzed the stimuli from 32 published studies, and they found that word valence was confounded with several lexical factors known to affect word recognition. Indeed, with these lexical factors covaried out, Larsen et al. found no evidence of automatic vigilance. The authors report a more sensitive analysis of 1011 words. Results revealed a small but reliable valence effect, such that negative words (e.g., "shark") elicit slower lexical decisions and naming than positive words (e.g., "beach"). Moreover, the relation between valence and recognition was categorical rather than linear; the extremity of a word's valence did not affect its recognition. This valence effect was not attributable to word length, frequency, orthographic neighborhood size, contextual diversity, first phoneme, or arousal. Thus, the present analysis provides the most powerful demonstration of automatic vigilance to date
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